Collaborations, Medical Miracles and Economic Opportunity

Tonight at MetroHealth Medical Center I had the pleasure of seeing a medical miracle. Maria, a paraplegic, was able to grip a tennis racket in her left hand (once paralyzed like most of her body following a horrific car-bike crash in NYC) and hit a tennis ball across the room while confined to her wheel chair. More importantly, Maria told a crowded room that she can take notes in her graduate school classes at John Carroll University and she has a much brighter future than she ever imagined after her accident.

A technology called Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) made the miracle possible.

Collaborators at the Cleveland FES Center from the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center, Case Western Reserve University and MetroHealth Medical Center made the miracle a reality...and they've been making dozens of similar miracles happen for years now. You can watch a video of some of the miracles made possible by this collaboration here.

Northeast Ohio is now a global biomedical leader (just like we were a global steel center in the last century) and one example of our global leadership is the area of functional electrical stimulation. At MetroHealth tonight, researchers highlighted the progress being made in FES and highlighted that several growing local companies, including NDI Medical, CSF Therapeutics and Synapse Biomedical, are translating that research into commercial products and job growth.

P. Hunter Peckham, executive director of the FES Center, noted that more than 20 years of research led to the miracle being experienced by Maria. And researchers and doctors are still at the early stage of developing the technology and all of its applications. The research has been nurtured through the help of organizations like NorTech. And the companies have been helped by BioEnterprise's ability to assist them in attracting venture capital.

Dr. Peckham's message was simple. A lot of hard work can create miracles. A lot more hard work is ahead. The Cleveland FES Center -- which is attracting top researchers from across the globe to Cleveland -- is working on the development of an artificial nervous system to restore movement to all four limbs.

Continued regional, state and federal support of the Cleveland FES Center collaboration will result in even more medical miracles and more economic growth.